Elgato EyeTV Netstream 4Sat review: DVB-S2 HD TV Tuner

Watch up to four different HDTV channels at any one time on a Mac, Windows PC, phone or tablet

Rating

Price

Pros

four satellite tuners in one box, great build quality, smart software

Cons

cumbersome channel editing for iPhone/iPad, unable to update firmware on a Mac

Elgato EyeTV Netstream 4Sat review

The promise of watching up to four different HDTV channels at any one time on your choice of Mac, Windows PC, phone or tablet is certainly tempting. Especially with the ability to record, edit and archive recordings to your media library. That’s exactly what Elgato’s latest product, the EyeTV Netstream 4Sat, can provide.

The Netstream 4Sat is a network TV tuner, meaning it connects to your home network rather than directly to an individual computer. This provides two significant benefits: it can be more easily installed where the satellite feed enters your home so long as you get a network cable there; and because the TV broadcast output is over your network, a range of devices can be used to watch and record that TV.

Elgato’s existing network EyeTV units, the Netstream Sat and the dual-tuner Netstream DTT, work in a similar way, but they have limitations: the ‘Sat’ version has only one tuner (an extra box may be piggy-backed to provide two tuners) while the ‘DTT’ still doesn’t support DVB-T2, so no HDTV – not in the UK at any rate.

The new Netstream 4Sat addresses all these issues: with four HDTV tuners, provided you have enough satellite feeds (or a suitable multi switch) you can watch and record up to four different channels on four different devices at any one time.

And the timing is spot-on: BBC3 HD and BBC4 HD have just joined the free-to-view-HDTV party so there is even more reason to get on board with HDTV viewing – trust us, you will not want to go back to standard-definition TV. Picture quality is superb!

A very neat trick, new to the Netstream 4Sat, is hardware transcoding. This allows you to watch HD channels on your iPhone or a similar device that is not strictly speaking HD compatible. The full-HD signal is down-sampled and sent to your device in a resolution that it can handle.

We found this a very useful feature – on the previous Netstream Sat we had to include both standard and HD versions of the same channel in our selected channel list, just so that we could watch them on our iPhone. The feature list – we’re talking useful and useable features, not just marketing ‘must-haves’ – already positions the Netstream 4Sat firmly at the top of Elgato’s EyeTV range. But there’s something else that confirms the flagship status: build-quality.

Built into a cast aluminium monocoque, the Netstream 4Sat feels and looks like the Bentley Continental of TV tuners. The recessed rear panel keeps everything neat and tidy and features four satellite connections, the power input and switch and the gigabit ethernet network socket.

Once you’ve screwed in the satellite feed(s), attached the external power adaptor and connected to your network via ethernet all you need to do is to install software for your devices: EyeTV 3 (for Mac), TerraTec Home Cinema (for Windows) and various apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire.

We found EyeTV best for personalising the channel selection, but an app-based device such as an iPhone is also needed to check for firmware updates. And here we have one small complaint: with the previous Netstream Sat you could upload your channel list to the device so that your personalised list is available on all devices (we use only 35 channels out of over 500 found in the channel scan). On the Netstream 4Sat whilst you can copy your personalised channel list from one computer to another, you have to manually delete and sort channels on your portable devices.

We tested the Netstream 4Sat with two generations of Apple Mac mini, a MacBook Air, iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The Macs can use the very slick EyeTV 3 software, which includes a three-month subscription to the Gracenote TV guide. This provides 12 days’ advance programming and is available to purchase for £16.95 a year (it claims to offer 14-day guide but strangely we only got 12). If you prefer though, there’s also the free EPG information provided by DVB, embedded in the Freesat signal.

Selecting programs to record is highly intuitive. Click a (very) small button on the program listing and the timer is set. Alternatively there is a search window allowing upcoming programmes to be searched for by name.

Editing recordings – to remove the adverts for example – works like a dream. Select the first and last frames of the section you wish to remove and the compact feature will remove them, to the frame. We found we could remove the advertisements and top-and-tail an hour-long 1080i recording in around a minute. Handy export buttons are also provided to enable exporting to Apple TV or similar, which usually transcodes the video to suit various devices. For archiving you can export as MPEG Program Stream or just drag the trimmed recording file in .eyetv format to your NAS drive without re-encoding.

OUR VERDICT

If you have a satellite dish or can accommodate one and wish to dovetail your media with your computer network then Elgato’s Netstream 4Sat is a complete delight. Performance, styling and build quality are all first-class, and being able to record four different HDTV channels, or simultaneously view on desktop PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones, is worth every penny of the asking price. Especially with the facility to easily edit and archive those TV recordings.

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Wim - 16:08 05-03-2014

Do I need 4 dishes to feed the 4 inputs?What is the recommended Dish / LNB for this?

Squid - 01:09 03-03-2014

Just to update this... One Gracenote sub worked for me on 2 separate installations of EyeTV in the same house. Whether this is by accident or design I do not know.Also, there are 2 apps. The EyeTV Netstream (grey) and EyeTV (Black). I think the grey one is free, and the black one is paid. The Free grey one can access the Netstream devices by itself, but can only use broadcast EPG. The black one requires EyeTV 3 to be running on a Mac on the same network, and acts as a remote client for it. That means it takes the EPG from whatever is running on the Mac (ie. it can use Gracenote), it can access recordings on the Mac, and it can tell the Mac to record things. It’s quite slick.I still don’t know if 4Sat comes with copies of EyeTV, which at £60 per copy is a significant extra.

Squid - 23:59 12-02-2014

Hi David, Thanks.The promotional materials aren't clear whether a copy of EyeTV is included. And your post suggests that you have at least 2 copies activated. Do you know what is included?Also, I'm assuming that one Gracenote sub only works on one install of EyeTV, and not at all with iOS clients?Thanks very much.

David Denyer - 16:09 02-02-2014

Hi Squid,1. Yes, the signal recieved on my desktop and laptop is full 1080i. The transcoder is only there for streaming to a mobile app, for non full-hd portable devices.2. I used the DVB free tv guide on my Netsream Sat and also only got about 2 or 3 days. What's more, updating the DVB guide took some time as the tuner cycled though all the channels. At times this was quite frustrating. I have now selected Gracenote tv guide which will be a paid-for service after the 90 days free. It currently costs £16.95 for a year. I will pay for it when I have to as it gives me 12 days of guide and downloads the whole lot almost instantly.David Denyer

squid - 19:33 31-01-2014

Very useful review, thank you. I have a couple of extra questions:1. Is the hardware transcoding disabled for streaming to the desktop app, so that the original stream in full quality is received?2. I find the over the air EPG for the older Netstream Sat is limited to about 3 days ahead, while the DTT version has well over a week. Is the 4sat's over-the-air EPG similarly limited?